Rutgers Professors Want Answers on University Merger Now

Two-hundred Rutgers University faculty members have signed a letter urging New Jersey lawmakers to find out more about a plan to fold the university's Camden campus into Rowan University.

The professors say there are too many unanswered questions for Gov. Chris Christie's proposal to be considered. The letter to all 120 legislators was released Friday. It condemns a consultant's report commissioned by Rowan and Cooper University Hospital urging a quick transfer of Rutgers-Camden's assets to Rowan, which has borrowed heavily for construction of a new medical school.

Christie has endorsed the merger as a way to strengthen higher education in south Jersey and statewide.

The governor wants the plan approved by July 1.

An online petition to block the merger has more than 13,000 signatures.